July 2018 (2 posts)

Data is literally everywhere. Every search done on Google or every second spent on LinkedIn is collected and converted to data. According to Internet Live Stats, Google now processes over 40,000 search queries every second or 3.5 billion searches per day - that is just one internet platform! Companies are taking enormous amounts of data, analyzing it and translating it into strategic insights. Those insights help make strategic decisions in real time across the entire organizational enterprise. This includes, how they engage with cause partners in corporate social responsibility activities.

Companies used to form a foundation or community relations team and task those staff members with defining what good the company would do in the world. For the most part, the corporate social responsibility initiatives were decided amongst these teams and the nonprofits supported were chosen based on C-suite executive interest. Meaning that executive had a passion for a particular cause, giving pillars were created, and the chosen nonprofit qualified for one of those categories. Unfortunately, the cause partners were not chosen based on sophisticated data and the outcomes of the partnership were certainly not measured for complex impact.

Luckily the process has changed - companies are now using data analysis to not only decide what causes to partner with, but to analyze the value of that partnership for their overall brand and business outcomes.

What does that mean for nonprofit causes?

In response to the more sophisticated analysis by companies, nonprofits must measure outcomes and must report those specific outcomes to their corporate partners. That measurement has to be more sophisticated than ever before to justify the relationship. The nonprofits that understand they have to measure outcomes and proactively provide that data to their corporate partners are the ones that are succeeding – and raising more money for the cause.

Let’s take a look at what nonprofits used to measure and the info provided to their corporate partners:

Donor or constituent age/gender/ethnicity

Total campaign impressions garnered in the marketplace around any activities done together

Celebrity brand interaction

Companies are looking for more measurements from their cause partners in today’s Big Data environment - it falls into three main categories:

Cause Impact - what did the company’s time, talent and resources do for the cause in the communities in which they do business.

Constituent Impact - how did employees and consumers respond to the partnership with the cause

Return on Investment - what return on investment did the company get from the partnership with the cause

Learn how your nonprofit can successfully measure data on August 16 at 2:30 EST during the webinar How To Use Data To Raise More Money From Corporations. Maureen Carlson will break down what specific data and measurements companies are looking for from their nonprofits partners, and the best way to deliver that data!

Organization search just got even easier in new FDO. We listened to the valuable feedback of FDO subscribers and worked hard to redesign your search by organization experience. Our goal is to continuously evolve FDO to ensure we bring you the best grant prospecting tool available.

What’s new?

Use the Organization Name search box to look for a Foundation or peer Grant Recipient*. When you enter an organization name, a full list of organizations will appear. This new layout is much easier to navigate, to ensure you can easily find organizations. You can now define if you want to see Grantmakers only or Recipients only, or both.

To view a profile directly, click on the flyout icon in the top right hand corner. 💡Tip: You may also select multiple organizations and all will appear in your search results.

We look forward to sharing other future FDO developments with you all. Happy fundraising!